GCSEs: An exam at 11 ‘will help the hard work in future’

So how did they feel before they opened the envelope and saw their result?

“Alright, it’s over and done with, all you need to get is your result and what you get is what you get,” Lochlan told BBC News NI.

He picked up a B and said sitting a GCSE exam was harder than he was used to.

“The writing was probably the hardest and the listening was the easiest,” he said.

“There’s harder questions that we wouldn’t really do on a day-to-day basis.”

That was echoed by his classmate Sorcha.

“It was a bit hard, but I managed,” she said.

Hannah said the format of the exam was also a challenge compared to everyday learning.

“All of us try to help each other, normally, but you can’t do that in a GCSE exam,” she said.